For a long, while I’ve had a particular problem – I could never get my roasted chicken to taste just the way I wanted it to.

I could get pieces of it in specific recipes to work well, but the whole thing? Just forget about it.

It would always be either too dry, which my husband hates or too mushy, which my kids dislike and reheating it in a microwave only made it worse.

Over time I came to accept it as something that was just a fact of life, as unchangeable as the weather. However, there was a solution I always looked over – rotisserie ovens!

They always seemed to be superfluous kitchen appliances to me, but when I tasted roasted chicken at a friend’s house, and all of my boys loved it, I had to ask what the secret was. It was a rotisserie oven! 🙂

Once I looked into it more, I found that these ovens could be used not only to get a perfectly evenly cooked whole chicken or expertly reheat it but for so much more than that!

I’ve had loads of success using them since, and today I’ll tell you all about them and review the best rotisserie ovens you can find!

The Benefits of Rotisserie Ovens over Traditional Ones

This is what stopped me from buying a rotisserie oven for a long time, this one burning question – what does it do that my regular oven doesn’t?

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For a long time, I thought the answer was ‘nothing,’ that it was just a scaled down oven with some fancy features that aren’t too useful. I was more wrong than I could imagine.

1. The Food Is Cooked Better

The main benefit of having a rotisserie oven is the way the food cooks in them. Due to the rotation process, the food comes out more evenly cooked, not too dry and not too greasy on any end. It also ends up being healthier than most fried foods due to the grease and fats draining away.

2. They Are Versatile

Rotisserie ovens can be used for more than just making chicken roasts – you can do far more with them than just that. You can make almost any sort of food, roasting, baking, grilling or broiling just about any dish. A lot of them, especially bread and other pastries, will come out better than if they were cooked in a regular oven. Some can even be used as toaster ovens.

3. It Saves You Time

These ovens can cook some foods much faster than a regular oven would and without spending as much energy. Moreover, you can have something cooking in the rotisserie oven while another part of the dish cooks in your regular oven. You will save a ton of time by using it, and the food will come out being more delicious than ever.

4. They’re Easy to Use

If you’ve ever wanted a chicken roast without putting in a ton of effort because you’re constantly checking the meat, rotisserie ovens are your saving grace. With one of these babies you can just set it and forget it, and you’ll still get a perfect roast at the end. They’re easy to use for beginners and offer more experienced chefs a ton of great options. They’re also easier to clean.

What to Do to Find the Best Rotisserie Oven

Rotisserie ovens might seem complicated on the surface, but there’s not that much to them. Once you know what to look at, you’ll easily find the best one for you.

Here are the things you should keep an eye on:

1. What Type of Rotisserie Oven Is It?

Not all rotisserie ovens are created equal, and there are a few different types of them out there, each with its benefits and downsides. I’ve gathered up a bit of info here about each of them.

Standard rotisserie ovens are around 15 inches wide, and you can cook small to medium chickens in them with ease. They usually have accessories for cooking other foods in them, and you’ll find a lot of use for them.

Portable rotisserie ovens are smaller than average and easier to store or take with you on a trip. If you’re not using your rotisserie often and you won’t need to cook large quantities of food in it, this is simply perfect.

Vertical rotisserie ovens work by rotating the heaters instead of rotating the food. This results in a different flavor, and they are able to drain away more excess fat and grease. They are also typically more expensive.

Commercial-grade rotisserie ovens are the ones you would most often see at a restaurant. You don’t need to own a restaurant to buy one – you only need to have a lot of space and a lot of meat you need to cook on a regular basis. These large ovens with multiple skewers will be a lifesaver if you need to make a ton of roasted meat in a short amount of time.

Consider this carefully and pick the type that seems the best to you.

2. How Much Food Can It Cook?

If you want to cook a lot of food, you’ll need an oven with a larger capacity. The capacity is usually expressed in quarts or pounds. However, if you don’t need to cook a lot, you shouldn’t get a large rotisserie oven since it will just take up space instead of being useful.

3. How Strong Is It?

The wattage of an oven like this is indicative of how fast and efficient it is at cooking food. If the oven you buy is not strong enough, it will still undercook your food despite it being a rotisserie oven, or it will take a long time to finish cooking. Keep in mind to compare the capacity to the wattage as well – the same wattage at different capacities equals to different levels of strength.

4. What Can It Do?

Lots of kitchen appliances can have useful additional features and settings that make them special. Rotisserie ovens can also be quite versatile, and plenty of them can prepare foods other than roasted meat and be great at it if they have the right settings. The more control you have over your oven and the more it can do, the better it is for you!

This is an incredibly versatile rotisserie oven that’s going to fit a wide variety of needs. It is a vertical-style rotisserie oven, but not one that rotates the heating element, it still rotates the food.

It comes included with a lot of extra equipment, among which is a kebab skewer, grill racks, and a baking pan. You can use each one of these accessories to cook different foods, which is what makes this oven so versatile. You can use it as a rotisserie, a griller or a regular oven if you like. You can bake, broil, roast and more.

The strength here is outstanding with 1500 watts of power, and the temperature can go up to 464 degrees F. The capacity is great as well, a total of 24 quarts. But, due to all of this, it’s quite large with a height of 19 inches and a width of 13.5. It won’t fit on just any kitchen counter.

Overall, it’s a great product with some minor problems that can hold it down.

Pros

It is versatile and can do a lot more than most rotisserie ovens

Huge capacity which allows you to cook a lot of food

Lots of extras are included with the oven

The price is more than fair and affordable

Made with care and highly sturdy

Cons

This is a compact and easy-to-use rotisserie oven that will be a good fit for almost any kitchen. It is only 7.75 inches tall and weight no more than 17 pounds. If you need to transfer it somewhere, you can do so with ease.

It is an improvement upon the previous model, being smaller but still having the same power of 1250 watts and being able to hold up to 13 pounds of turkey or chicken. You are also able to cook burgers or vegetables in it if you want to; it is bound to cook food quickly due to all the power.

There are plenty of accessories included – a spit, a carving platform, oven gloves, food ties and a removable drip tray. The lid, the drip tray, and the heat shield can all be washed in a dishwasher, but the rest of it is not as easy to clean as those elements.

The instructions it comes with are poor, but if you have some experience you should be able to manage it, and it’s a great compact rotisserie.

Cons

This is a powerful mix of a rotisserie oven, and a toaster oven made to be as versatile as possible while also delivering on the power.

As a toaster oven, it is simply great. It has a dedicated timer for toast allowing you to reliably get the type of toast you want, every time. You can fit up to 6 slices of bread in it at a time.

While that’s all good, how does it perform as a rotisserie? Well, it is more than decent at it. It uses a fan to disperse the heat across the oven instead of having multiple heaters which still works fine, though the meant doesn’t end up being as evenly cooked as it is in ovens with multiple heaters.

It will cook the food quickly, though, due to its 1500 watts of power. However, it can’t hold a lot of food as a rotisserie, and a 3.5-pound chicken is as much as it can take.

Overall, it’s a good oven but probably better for its other functions rather than as a dedicated rotisserie oven.

Pros

Great as a toaster oven

Quite versatile, it can bake, broil, rotisserie and more

Compact and easy to store

It operates on 1500 watts of power

Energy-efficient

Cons

This is a small bundle of joy that’s bound to fit in well with most kitchens. It’s compact, yet powerful and it has a larger capacity than a lot of ovens which take up more space. It can fit up to a 5-pound chicken inside it and cook it to perfection.

It has only 950 watts of power, so the cooking might take a while, but it comes out perfect almost every time due to the heaters being well-positioned. It can also be used to grill and broil food as well in a flat basket that’s included.

The size is great, and it is only 11.5 inches high while being 17 inches wide and 12 inches deep. You can easily take it with you, it can fit into an RV with ease, and most kitchen counters will be able to accommodate it.

One major downside to this oven is that it’s a bit difficult to clean, but almost everything else is outstanding.

Pros

Cooks food incredibly evenly

Compact and easy to use for anyone

The price is more than decent

It has a 3-hour timer

Cons

Here’s an exceptional, vertical-style rotisserie oven that uses a different method than most to cook food – it rotates the heaters instead of the food. With this system, the food is cooked even more evenly than in other ovens.

The capacity of this oven is great as well, it can hold up to 10 pounds of chicken, but it doesn’t take up too much space either. It’s 15.5 inches tall and 16 by 16.5 inches wide and deep. It does require a bit more vertical space than most other rotisserie ovens, but it needs less horizontal space to make up for it.

It has tons of power, and it can easily cook a whole Cornish hen in 30 minutes or less!

The only huge downside to it is the smell – it can smell quite bad when it’s working, but rest assured that nothing is broken or melting. If you can deal with that, though, it’s a great oven.

Cons

Which Rotisserie Oven is the Best of the Best?

This was a hard choice to make since all of these ovens are quite good and each one has some unique benefits. I can see each one as being ‘the best’ to someone.

Due to that, you might not agree with me this time, but I have to say that the George Foreman GR59A is my favorite this time. Why? Well, it would be because it’s so compact yet strong and able to hold a lot of food despite it.

It’s the perfect rotisserie oven for my needs, and I’m finally able to make perfect roast chicken for my family!

Barbara Whitney

For the last 20 years, I’ve been cooking, preparing, researching, and gathering recipes, tools, and knowledge about food and the way we prepare it. Raising two lively boys and spoiling one great husband later, it’s safe to say that I’ve optimized my kitchen to deliver the best possible meal, no matter the occasion.

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